Roundup: Unserious about monetary policy

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Amidst party leaders making boneheaded tax promises in the three provincial elections going on right now (no, BC, you can’t forgo taxes on tips without trying to change federal tax authorities), economist Stephen Gordon has decided to revisit Pierre Poilievre’s promise to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada—something he doesn’t have the power to do—and looks at the supposed reasons why. Unsurprisingly, they don’t add up.

In other words, Poilievre is performatively trying to once again blame inflation on someone other than the global supply chain crunch, or the climate-related droughts that impacted food prices (to say nothing of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), and has been pursuing bullshit attacks as a distraction. Those attacks included trying to bring the Bank under the purview of the Auditor General so that they could order her to do “performance audits” on their decisions during COVID (something she has no expertise in doing), because they are not serious people, and get all of their ideas about macroeconomics from crypto bros on YouTube. It’s really, really depressing that anyone thinks they are remotely qualified to govern.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian shelling killed one person and injured six in the eastern city of Sloviansk. A Russian missile also struck near a major Ukrainian airbase, while Russians fired missiles at two grain vessels on the Black Sea. Russian forces have also entered the outskirts of Toretsk, which is another frontline settlement. Ukrainian forces took credit for the strike on an oil depot in occupied Crimea, which has been fuelling Russia’s war effort, as well as sabotaging a Russian minesweeper in its Black Sea fleet.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1843234630754836742

Good reads:

  • Here is a look at October 7th commemoration events around Canada, and a timeline of what has happened over the past year.
  • Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre were at a commemoration event in Ottawa, and Poilievre spent his time blaming the Liberals for rising antisemitism. (Classy!)
  • Trudeau is off to Laos for ASEAN trade talks.
  • The federal government is chartering more flights in Lebanon to help Canadians evacuate the area.
  • The Public Sector Integrity Commissioner says she’s overwhelmed with whistleblower complaints and needs a bigger budget to keep up.
  • The government has released summaries of Cabinet documents to the Foreign Interference inquiry, which detail interference warnings from May 2022.
  • The inquiry also heard that a particular report on Chinese interference in 2021 never made it past the National Security Advisor’s desk.
  • ITK leader Natan Obed is concerned about federal money going to self-identified Indigenous groups whose validity Indigenous leaders reject.
  • The Federal Court of Appeal says that CN can go ahead with building a new rail hub in Milton, Ontario, in spite of environmental impacts.
  • Here is a look at the ways in which Poilievre and the Conservatives took swipes at the government during October 7thcommemorations, including at Joly personally.
  • Speaker Fergus has said that Poilievre needs to withdraw his comment about Joly and “Hamas supporters,” so we’ll see if he does.
  • Here is a look at Poilievre’s charm offensive with ethno-cultural media outlets.
  • Pierre Paul-Hus says the Conservatives aren’t committing to increasing OAS for seniors under 75, but if they did, it would be financed by other cuts.
  • BC Conservative leader John Rustad has been making “Nuremberg 2.0” references around COVID, which are about executions of perceived political enemies.

Odds and ends:

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